Whistle Stop Cafe

Good food, but an odd place to review, for certain.
We stopped in here because we mistakenly thought it was some sort of local coffee house, but found an old school diner/​café that harkened back to both a bygone era and a rural setting more in line with perhaps, Appalachia. It is Clio, though, but it seemed a bit retro even for that town. And here I thought that I was going to be able to grab a latte! Silly me.
When we walked in, I paused for a second. I thought I had stepped onto the set of «Justified» and Boyd Crowder was going to be sitting up at the counter drinking his cup of Joe with a plate of grits, only to have Raylan Givens come in to give him a hard time. Seriously, it was that odd. I felt like I had been instantly transported to Appalachia– and I know what small towns in Appalachia look like, I’ve been there before.
There was an old-​fashioned counter with stools right in front of the open kitchen. I could watch everything they were doing in there– and I mean, everything. I haven’t been in a place like that in awhile. Wow.
We were stared at a little bit, but not in a leering or unfriendly way. Maybe we looked «too city.» I probably would have fit in better had I been wearing something less urban than my traditional head-​to-​toe black. Nonetheless, folks seemed fairly friendly.
They even some of those old-​fashioned, diner-​style dessert domes that covered the daily dessert specials! In the back, I spied a sort of gift shop area where handmade goods were sold. That was odd, but interesting. I took a quick peek. It was very country, to say the least.
From a few brochures we saw at our booth, it appears they have live music on certain nights, mostly country artists, though. I was slightly surprised by that. The place is small, so where do they perform?
There were a couple of older guys drinking coffee and enjoying their breakfast at the counter, but other than that, it was pretty slow when we arrived. We were greeted by a friendly woman, who apparently also helped cook our food. A few other people showed up after we sat down at a nearby booth.
The menu actually looked pretty interesting. I was certain everything was going to be homemade and it was! I was down for it. I ordered lunch while my husband opted for breakfast. The food took awhile to come out of the kitchen. We watched as our meals were prepared. You can’t do that everyday.
I had the Ann Arbor sandwich, which was prepared with the freshest of vegetables on good quality, homemade bread. The homemade fries were awesome. I’ve never had anything quite like them. Frozen, they were clearly not. Made with love sprang to mind. My husband’s oatmeal looked like none I had ever seen before. Clearly, I have seen one too many boxes of instant oatmeal. I tried it and it was good, very different from the Quaker boxed variety. His nutty bread was outstanding. Sign me up– where do I buy a loaf of that? I’d say it was well worth the wait.
Our meal was both wholesome and inexpensive. I was surprised to pay so little for lunch. It was well below the $ 20 mark.
I think I’d like to stop in some weekend for brunch and see what that’s like. All in all, it was a nice meal. If I’m in that neck of the woods sometime soon, I’ll be back.